The Vatican’s daily newspaper has panned Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its review of the film, despite virtually universal praise for the latest movie in the seminal series.

Film critic Emilio Ranzato described JJ Abrams’ film as “confusing and vague” and wrote the newly created villains failed “most spectacularly” to represent evil.

“The counterpart of Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, wears a mask merely to emulate his predecessor,” Mr Ranzato wrote in L’Osservatore Romano.

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“While the character who needs to substitute Emperor Palpatine as the incarnation of supreme evil represents the most serious defect of the film.”

The critic also took aim at the C.G.I special effects in the film, branding them extremely poor.

He claimed they were “the clumsiest and tackiest result you can obtain from computer graphics”.

“[The film was] not a classy reboot however, like Christopher Nolan’s Batman, but an update twisted to suit today’s tastes and a public more accustomed to sitting in front of a computer than in a cinema.”

Vanity Fair reported that Mr Ranzato’s review seemed to fly against the overly positive praise the movie has received.

It sported a 95 per cent approval rating on review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes.

The praise for the film has been high, with The Hollywood Reporter writing “The Force is back. Big time”.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens pumps new energy and life into a hallowed franchise in a way that both resurrects old pleasures and points in promising new directions,” it wrote.

The New Yorker declared “The Force is with us forever, whether we like it or not”, while The Guardian wrote it “has real heart and soul”.